Your Desk Shouldn’t Be Your Altar
Avoid the Default Setting
There’s one scene from George Orwell’s 1984 that’s always stuck with me. Well, two scenes if you count the idea of someone putting my head in a cage of hungry rats. But since writing any more on that one will result in nightmares; I’ll stick to the scene describing the main character’s job. As Orwell wrote,
“Winston’s greatest pleasure was his work. Most of it was a tedious routine, but included in it there were also jobs so difficult and intricate that you could lose yourself in them as in the depths of a mathematical problem-delicate pieces of forgery in which you had nothing to guide you except your knowledge of the principles of Ingsoc and your estimate of what the Party wanted you to say.”
Winston Smith, the protagonist, despises Big Brother and Ingsoc (English Socialism). The government is responsible for countless disappearances, including that of his parents. He actively fantasizes about bringing down the entire system.
And yet, he considers his work to be his greatest pleasure. Work in which he revises historical records and maintains the Party’s propaganda machine. A machine — to Winston’s mind at least — that’s critical to sustaining the Party’s power and authority.
He knows this. He knows that his work is making the world a worse place. And he…
